John H. Nuckolls LLNL Director Emeritus Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting “Countdown to...
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John H. Nuckolls LLNL Director Emeritus Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting “Countdown to Ignition and Gain” December 3, 2008 Search For A “YES WE CAN” Ten Year Inertial Fusion Energy Development Strategy None of these remarks are necessarily the view of LLNL, LLNS-LLC, NNSA, the USG, or any other organization.
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3 JHN FusPowAssoc_12/08 Ten Year IFE Development Strategy? Exploits Four Key Technological Strengths Smaller, cheaper lasers enabled by advances in targets Fusion reaction chamber wall protected from radiation damage Separate laser, target factory, and fusion reaction chamber enable rapid innovation NIF, supercomputers, and outstanding experts will enable major improvements in target performance
Transcript of John H. Nuckolls LLNL Director Emeritus Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting “Countdown to...
John H. NuckollsLLNL Director Emeritus
Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting“Countdown to Ignition and Gain”
December 3, 2008
Search ForA “YES WE CAN” Ten Year
Inertial Fusion Energy Development Strategy
None of these remarks are necessarily the view of LLNL, LLNS-LLC, NNSA, the USG, or any other organization.
2JHN-2008-006FusPowAssoc_12/08
Ten Year Inertial Fusion Energy Development Strategy?
Ten Years?? Manhattan Project in 4 years Apollo Program in 6 years
Goal: In the next decade, develop Inertial Fusion Energy to address the great challenges of climate, energy, and the economy
Funding: President-Elect Obama’s projected high national priority $150B, 10 year energy program
3JHN-2008-006FusPowAssoc_12/08
Ten Year IFE Development Strategy?Exploits Four Key Technological Strengths
Smaller, cheaper lasers enabled by advances in targets Fusion reaction chamber wall protected from radiation
damage Separate laser, target factory, and fusion reaction
chamber enable rapid innovation NIF, supercomputers, and outstanding experts will
enable major improvements in target performance
4JHN-2008-006FusPowAssoc_12/08
Ten Year IFE Development Strategy?Accelerate Ignition and Fast Ignition
Why FI: A second robust path to ignition and high gain Requires much smaller laser energy; enables a revolution in
fusion energy development and economics Potential for major increases in target gain via increases in
implosion efficiency
How:Surge in funding for Rochester FI experiments, FI target design at LLNL and University of Rochester, and for a NIF FI laser capability
5JHN-2008-006FusPowAssoc_12/08
Ten Year IFE Development Strategy?Four Steps to Fusion Power
Build an efficient high-average power laser module, a target factory module and a fusion chamber
Build a surged, heat capacity IFE system
Build a fusion engine• Breed tritium supply to initiate larger fusion systems• Waste from fission power plants
Build a fusion power plant
6JHN-2008-006FusPowAssoc_12/08
Ten Year IFE Development Strategy? Questions/Issues
Major technological difficulties? Risks?
Costs? Less than 10% of $150B?
Strong, sustained, political support?
Need detailed plans, system studies
